Peroxycarboxylic acids are commonly employed as oxidizing reagents in the field of organic synthesis for the production of organic chemicals. A wide variety of organic molecules may be oxidized by means of these reagents which, for instance, are useful for the preparation of epoxides from unsaturated hydrocarbons. The various uses of peroxycarboxylic acids are exhaustively described in the art, e.g. in Comprehensive Organic Chemistry edited by Barton and Ollis, Pergamon Press, 1979. Some peroxycarboxylic acids such as meta-chloro-peroxybenzoic acid have become commercially available as a result of their wide applicability.
Even though some peroxycarboxylic acids are useful and commercially available reagents their use is limited because of their relatively high cost and the risks (in particular the explosion hazard) involved in handling the reagents, especially when this is done on a large scale. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of preparing peroxycarboxylic acids as well as for methods which make it safer to use them in organic synthesis.